


Such Great Heights

by yaycoffee



Category: Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-29
Updated: 2012-07-29
Packaged: 2017-11-11 00:08:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaycoffee/pseuds/yaycoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice loves impossible things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Such Great Heights

**Author's Note:**

> Written for wanderamaranth's prompt of "Alice/Hatter, flying in a dirigible, something to do with a parasol"

Usually the sway of a carriage ride out to the country was enough to make Alice’s stomach clench with the dread that only a looming garden party could bring, but today she found that her stomach was rather doing all manner of flips and flutters. There was no garden party today.  
  
She straightened her skirts. She checked that her earrings were in place. She crossed her right ankle over her left and then switched to left over right. She worried the lace ruffle on the wrist of her glove, and she took several deep breaths, and she thought of her father.  
  
 _Impossible Things_ , she thought, smiling to herself, and from the seat opposite her, Lord Ascot was quite obviously similarly giddy. He seemed to catch himself in mid-fidget as well, and he cleared his throat, stilling his shaking leg and leaning forward. “This could simply _revolutionise_ the way the company does business,” he said, the calm in his statement betrayed by the wavering of his voice at every word.  
  
Alice didn’t trust her own voice to remain calm and professional, so she simply smiled--something that should have stayed prim, but quickly broke so that all her teeth were manically bared like a peculiar cat she once knew.  
  
When the carriage stopped in the middle of a field, Alice jumped up at once, barely remembering to take the offered hand to help her down. She was ever so glad that she didn’t have to search through the throng of people to see the thing they’d come to see. It was enormous--a small ship and a very large balloon, hovering like a golden cloud above it, attached to the ship with dozens of fasteners. It was a dark and looming thing--casting large shadows over the field and the people gathered there, but Alice found that she wasn’t scared--she was more intrigued than ever--it was one of the curiouser things she’d ever seen (and she’d seen a great manner of curious things).  
  
So fascinated was she by it, that she stole a look into the crowd, looking carefully to make sure that Lord Ascot was still with her, that all the people were, in fact, people--this sort of thing reminded her so strongly of another place.  
  
Within minutes, a man in a black top hat came up the steps. Ringing a bell, he called the people to attention, shouting into a large cone which he held up to his mouth. He told them how happy he was to have them there, how this airship would be the mark of a new day in Britain, but Alice was far to busy looking at every intricate corner of the thing to pay attention to his words.  
  
She started moving forward before he even finished his speech, wanting desperately to get on the first voyage. With each step she got closer, and the thing seemed to get bigger. She wondered what it looked like on the inside, how on earth it would stay afloat, how it would come down when the time came. She had a fleeting thought that maybe she should be a bit more concerned for these things that she was, but all she wanted was to _get on_.  
  
After a few minutes, she had made it to the very front of the crowd, and though she looked around for him, Lord Ascot was nowhere to be seen. She hoped he was all right but wasn’t about to lose her place in the now elongating queue in search for him.  
  
She hadn’t been remotely aware of the sun being in her eyes until quite suddenly, it wasn’t. Looking up, her vision was shielded from all but the looming airship and the ornate fabric of a parasol opened above her head.  
  
Before she could even open her mouth to speak, she felt a hand on her back, ushering her inside. “Come along, Miss,” the voice of the parasol-wielder spoke, and it did sound familiar, but her heart was beating so rapidly that she dismissed it nearly full stop. She could just see the inside of the thing if he would hold the parasol still, if the sun outside wasn’t so bright.  
  
But, soon enough, she stepped inside, and Alice’s heart fluttered. It was beautiful--all velvet seats and golden fixtures, sparkling windows and cozy lamps. It smelt of new fabric and fresh paint, but also of fresh tea and cakes. It took her a long moment to realise the quiet; the noise of the crowd had completely gone. She tried to look around to the door to see if it was still open, but the parasol, beautiful though it was, was still open around her to her back.  
  
“Oh, do forgive me, but I think... yes, I know I’ve heard somewhere that opening umbrellas indoors is some sort of bad luck.” This time, the voice was so familiar that she could not dismiss it, but it carried on, taking the parasol from over her head.  
  
The figure holding it, had it in front of him, twirling it as if dancing. “I just never can understand how these things go--is it upwards or downwards? In fact just the other day, someone was telling me that these things should rather go diagonaliwise, but I said that no, no, no, it is impossible for it to go diagonalwise--it must go some other wise...”  
  
It was in the midst of this rather one-sided debate that Alice noticed his shoes, and that they were rather unlike shoes she would have expected an usher to have worn. They were familiar--worn brown leather with the most outrageous stockings, and as it dawned on her, she nearly ripped the parasol from his face herself, but she carefully grabbed it by the rim and said, “Here. I do believe if you pull on this bit here, then...” and the parasol shut neatly. She wanted so desperately to think of something clever to say, but all she managed was, “You,” and she was smiling.  
  
“Oh, Alice,” he said, eyes glowing greengoldgreen, entire face breaking with his smile. “You are terribly late for tea.”  
  
“Hatter!” she yelped as her words failed her yet again, and she leaped for him, throwing her arms around his neck. “Whatever are you doing here? How did you...”  
  
“Well, the queen, you see, said that all I needed was some sort of vehicle to get from Underland to Upperland, and so I stopped making hats, since the queen now has over five hundred, and she told me that she wouldn’t be needing another for quite some time, and so I bean to contemplate things that began with the letter D, and I came across daffodil and daisy and doll and deluded and dumpling and then there was dangerous and death and downtrodden and...” he was getting agitated and his voice was shifting along with his eyes, so Alice put a hand on either side of his face, feeling the warmth of his cheeks along the length of her fingers.  
  
“Hatter,” she said--almost a whisper, calling his focus back.  
  
“Dirigible,” he choked, and he smiled at her again, taking both of her hands in his. “So, I made this dirigible for my Alice.”  
  
“But, what about all of the other people?”  
  
“Why ever would they need to get to Underland?”  
  
“But, Hatter, they are all out there,” she said--pointing at the window, and they both looked out to see them, chattering and cheering, still marveling at the amazing airship.  
  
“They won’t be for long,” the Hatter said, and he shouted toward the front “I think we’re ready, Thackery!”  
  
“Verry good, Tarrant,” the March Hare shouted, and the ship came to life. Alice nearly lost her footing, but the Hatter caught her around her waist and pulled her close as he steadied them on a chair back.  
  
The ship was lifting, and soon they were flying. The people on the ground grew smaller as Alice watched, and at once, she spotted Lord Ascot. He was smiling and waving at the ship, and Alice wondered if he could see her through the window. When the others noticed his waving, they all lifted their hands, too. Alice waved back at them as the ship continued higher and higher, and when they were all out of sight at last, she turned to the Hatter.  
  
“Thank you, Tarrant,” she said, and she looked around at the magnificent craftsmanship around her--all the details that could never be mistaken for anyone else's handiwork.  
  
He blushed and looked to the ground for a moment before meeting her gaze, stepping forward into her space. Whispering, he said, “Don’t you know, Alice? I would have built twelve thousand of these ships if it meant that just one of them would take me to you.”  
  
Alice lost her words again--she didn’t know a single one that would help her say what she was feeling, so instead she leaned in closer, touching her lips to his. He kissed her back, and Alice wondered if it was _possible_ that one could fly whilst flying.  
  
As they kissed, she thanked the heavens for impossible things.  
  
**End**

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for the title is given freely to The Postal Service for their song of the same name.


End file.
